High pressure gasification processes for syngas production require regular component analysis using a range of instruments. The technique used in gas sampling inherently has a lag time and this impacts on operational management of the process. In some coal gasifiers (such as a fluidized bed gasifier outlet or multiple stage entrained bed gasifier) syngas often contains other organic components such as polyaromatic hydrocarbons (e.g. naphthalene, phenanthrene, anthracene). Syngas is typically cooled down before analysis, as a result these components change from vapor phase to liquid condensate or even solid crystals. Typically, an indirect cooler with a metal surface for heat transfer is used. During gas cooling through said cooler, organic components will deposit on the cooling surface. This affects further cooling and periodic regeneration of the surface by heat or chemical means is required during normal operation. The sampling device is used in batch wise mode. A drawback with current sampling methodology is the significant lag time, due to large cooler volume relative to the sampling gas flow rate resulting in the on-line analysis being unsuitable for real time on-line monitoring and process control.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved analytical methodology to overcome the above limitations.